Supreme Court Won't Hear Case of Maine Man Stripped of Right to Lawyer

Published Oct 4, 2016 at 12:25 PM

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FILE- This March 5, 2009, file photo shows the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington. The Supreme Court will struggle this week with the validity of an Arizona law that tries to keep illegal immigrants from voting by demanding all state residents show documents proving their U.S. citizenship before registering to vote in national elections. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to take up the case of a Maine man who was stripped of his right to a court-appointed attorney because he couldn't get along with five of them.

The court declined to hear the case on Monday.

Joshua Nisbet, who's serving seven years in prison for robbing a convenience store, handled his own defense last year with two standby attorneys. The attorneys agreed to represent him at sentencing.

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court ruled that Nisbet willfully waived his right to counsel through his behavior, which included threatening to shoot one of his attorneys in the eye with a BB gun. All told, five different attorneys said they couldn't get along with him.